Sofia Cocea (15 June 1839 – 27 October 1861), also known under her married name as Sofia Chrisoscoleu or as Sofia Hrisoscoleu, was a

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

n, later

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n essayist, journalist and poet.

Biography

Born in

Fălticeni Fălticeni (; ''; ;'' ) is a town in Suceava County, northeastern Romania. It is situated in the historical region of Western Moldavia. According to the 2021 census, Fălticeni is the third largest urban settlement in the county. It was declared ...

, she was from a modest family of estate managers. Ștefania Gáll Mihăilescu, ''Din istoria feminismului românesc: antologie de texte (1838–1929)'', p.69. Polirom, 2002, At age thirteen in 1852, she translated a novel by

Madame de Genlis Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

from French into Romanian, under the title ''Palmira și Flaminia sau secretul'' ("Palmira and Flaminia or the Secret"), as well as the play ''Maria sau mustrările de cuget ale unei mame'' ("Maria or a Mother's Qualms of Conscience").

Gheorghe Asachi Gheorghe Asachi (, surname also spelled Asaki; 1 March 1788 – 12 November 1869) was a Moldavian, later Romanian, prose writer, poet, painter, historian, dramatist, engineer, border maker, and translator. An Enlightenment-educated polymath and ...

, then working a censor, considered the latter immoral and tried unsuccessfully to have it banned. When she was seventeen, she applied for a grant to study abroad but was denied. She studied at

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

and at

Târgu Neamț Târgu Neamț (; , , , ) is a town in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania, on the river Neamț. It had, , a population of 18,029. Three villages are administered by the town: Blebea, Humulești, and Humuleștii Noi. History Originally ...

, becoming a schoolteacher in the latter town and in

Vaslui Vaslui (), a city in eastern Romania, is the seat of Vaslui County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia. The city administers five villages: Bahnari, Brodoc, Moara Grecilor, Rediu, and Viișoara. History Archaeological surveys indicate t ...

in 1857, later founding a private boarding school in Fălticeni. In 1859, she married Professor V. Chrisoscoleu. She aligned herself with the writers and journalists who, after the

1848 revolution The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

, advocated the unification of the

Danubian Principalities The Danubian Principalities (, ) was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th century. The term was coined in the Habsburg monarchy after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774) ...

.Sanda Golopenția, "Sofia Cocea", in Katharina M. Wilson (ed.), ''An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers'', Vol. I, p.259. Taylor & Francis, 1991, Linguist Sanda Golopenția describes her essays as "lively, firm, courageous and slightly ironic"; these appeared in the leading pro-union journals of the time, including ''Tribuna română'', ''Reforma'', ''Gazeta poporului'', ''Zimbrul'', ''Foiletonul Zimbrului'', ''

Românul ''Românul'' (, meaning "The Romanian"; originally spelled ''Romanulu'' or ''Românulŭ'', also known as ''Romînul'', ''Concordia'', ''Libertatea'' and ''Consciinti'a Nationala''), was a political and literary newspaper published in Bucharest, Ro ...

'' and ''Dacia'', as well as in ''Steaua Dunării'' and ''Gazeta de Moldavia''. Among the topics she covered were the peasantry's economic and social status, women's rights, culture and public education and foreign policy. Golopenția considers that her occasional poems are "by far superseded" by her journalism and essays. She died in Vaslui.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cocea, Sofia 1839 births 1861 deaths People from Fălticeni 19th-century Moldavian people Romanian translators Romanian women poets Romanian women journalists Romanian journalists Romanian essayists Romanian schoolteachers Romanian feminists Romanian women essayists 19th-century journalists 19th-century translators 19th-century Romanian women writers 19th-century poets 19th-century essayists 19th-century women journalists 19th-century Moldavian women